MR JUSTICE WARBY
Approved Judgment
NT1 & NT2 v Google LLC
sense that the search criteria have no regard to the nature of the source publications.
Searches for “news” may target a narrow range of sources. But whatever the nature of
the search in question, when Google responds to a search on an individual’s name by
facilitating access to journalistic content about that individual, this is purely
accidental, and incidental to its larger purpose of providing automated access to third
party content of whatever nature it may be, that it has identified and indexed and
meets the search criteria specified by the user. That is a commercial purpose which,
however valuable it may be, is not undertaken for any of the special purposes, or
“with a view to” the publication by others of journalistic material within s 32(1)(a).
Such processing is undertaken for Google’s own purposes which are of a separate and
distinct nature.
101.
In my judgment, both versions of the argument would fail on the alternative ground
that the processing involved when Google Search makes available third party content
that happens to be of a journalistic nature is not properly regarded as processing
undertaken “solely” or “only” for journalistic purposes, as required by Article 9 and s
32. In Google Spain, the Grand Chamber indicated at [85] that it did not consider an
ISE would process solely for journalistic purposes, and although that was not an
integral part of the Court’s reasoning I consider it is true. I also accept the argument
of Ms Proops, for the ICO that Google’s approach to the journalism exemption is to
be resisted because it would have consequences that cannot have been intended by the
legislators. The argument, shortly stated, is that the effect of ss 3, 45 and 46 of the
DPA is to impose severe constraints on the ICO’s powers of enforcement where data
are processed for the special purposes. If Google’s activities fall within that
description, it would be able to operate the “right to be forgotten regime” without
regulatory oversight and control. I consider my conclusions to be consistent with the
stricture contained in Article 9 of the DP Directive, that Member States may provide
for journalistic exemptions “only if they are necessary to reconcile … privacy with …
freedom of expression” (emphasis added).
102.
I would in any event have rejected Google’s case on the Exemption Issue, for these
reasons. Each of s 32(1) (b) and (c) has a subjective and an objective element: the data
controller must establish that it held a belief that publication would be in the public
interest, and that this belief was objectively reasonable; it must establish a subjective
belief that compliance with the provision from which it seeks exemption would be
incompatible with the special purpose in question, and that this was an objectively
reasonable belief. That is the ordinary and natural meaning of the words used (and of
the somewhat similar provisions of s 4 of the Defamation Act 2013, discussed in
Economou v de Freitas [2016] EWHC 1853 [2017] EMLR 4 [136], [139(2), (3)]).
There is no evidence that anyone at Google ever gave consideration to the public
interest in continued publication of the URLs complained of, at any time before NT1
complained. I accept that consideration was given to that issue after complaint was
made. It was part of the process of assessment that Google undertook, as described by
Ms Caro. Thus far, there might be something in Google’s argument, that it should be
exempt if the view it took on the public interest was a reasonable one. But it would
still have to go on to show that it held a belief, that was reasonable, that it would be
incompatible with the special purposes for its continued processing of the data to be
carried out in compliance with the DPA. There is no evidence of that at all. Google’s
“right to be forgotten” assessment process is not designed or adapted for that purpose.
That may be because it has not considered until recently that the journalism